Erasmus School of Law has been awarded a Marie Curie ETN grant by the European Commission under the H2020 Programme. Led by the University of Birmingham, the European consortium combines the expertise of eleven core beneficiaries and 22 partners, hosting and training fifteen Early Stage Researchers (0-4 years research experience).Â
The research activities will last four years. Fabian Amtenbrink, Professor of European Union Law is the lead for ESL. Next to co-supervising two PhD projects he will fulfil the role of Director of Training for the whole Network. Klaus Heine, Professor of Law and Economics will co-supervise a PhD project and will also be in charge of one of the network-wide training modules on Law and Economics of TTIP. Finally, Gerard Meijer, professor for arbitration and dispute settlement, will co-supervise a PhD project. Moreover, he provides the link to one of the non-academic partners of the Network (NautaDutilh).
Marie Curie ETN
The Marie Curie ETN, named after the double Nobel Prize-winning Polish-French scientist, is a European PhD programme for highly motivated young scientists, where state-of-the-art research is combined with a comprehensive training programme. All Early Stage Researchers benefit from an extensive training program delivered jointly by academic, industrial and administrative partners. The aim is for the researcher to experience different sectors and develop their transferable skills by working on joint research projects.
About the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
The EU currently is negotiating a controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement with the USA, the main features of which will be the abolition of tariffs, the reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade between the EU and the USA and the introduction of a dispute settlement mechanism.
The objective of the TTIP Innovative Training Network
The objective of the awarded TTIP Innovative Training Network (TTIP-ITN) is to foster interdisciplinary research into TTIP with a view to creating a significantly increased European knowledge base and research capacity on TTIP, thus helping Europe to reap the benefits of TTIP (wealth, jobs, etc.) while addressing its challenges (democracy, accountability, environmental- and labour standards, etc.).
The research will focus on three clusters:
- Transatlantic governance
- Transatlantic regulation
- Multilateralism and regionalism
Comments of the European Commission
The European Commission was enthusiastic about the proposal: 'The proposal is of high quality and clearly presents a very credible research programme, focusing on a timely issue with an innovative methodology. Network-wide advanced training events with the supervision of qualified and relevant experts are very clearly described. Interdisciplinary and intersectoral aspects of the research and training programmes are very well explained, and it is evident that the intersectoral aspect of the training program will bridge the gap between the research. [...]